5 comments:

This was interesting. While I agree with some of what you said I also think that the part of the reasons for her becoming such a phenomenon lies with her upbringing as well. She comes from a very focused 2 parent home who, judging from home videos and countless interviews, were very involved and molded her from a young age.

I'm still not sure what the argument is here. Maybe I'm having a daft moment. But are you trying to say that the reason for Bey's success is because white people endorse the fact that she's singing about thugs and bill payments?

Because if that's the argument, it's not entirely true. She sings about plenty of other subjects that I'm sure you are aware of and most of her songs don't contain references to thugs.

Also, in this last 15 years of rap lyrics, it is unnaturally common to hear black rappers consistently rap about the fact that they are not (for lack of a better term) "Giving a bitch shit". They are constantly talking about how they got the girl without having to do anything for her. How she is a dime and they would do anything for her but give her a dime. The hiphop woman has become immune to this by declaring that the rappers are not speaking of her, when in fact they are!

For Beyonce to actually stand up for herself in a song and say "Can you pay my bills"? is actually applaudable given the state of the black male hiphop mindset and I'm not mad at her for it. We don't talk about that enough. We don't speak about the monetary responsibilities that arise while being in a relationship.

I'll end this by saying that when I was 13 a boy called the house for me. My father picked up the phone and drilled the boy asking him "Do you have a job?" I pleaded with my father to be nice, that the boy was only 13 and how could he have a job? My father said "If he aint got nothing to give you, then you aint got no time to give him. If he can't afford to take you to the movies, he can't afford to be calling you!"

The next week the boy called again. He had started packing bags in the supermarket and wanted to take me to the movies across the street. My father consented. I'm glad I learned that lesson.

I'd be interested to see a comparison of Beyonce's songs which primarily involve singing to a man, about a man, or being in love, to other popular female artists today, maybe Alicia Keys? In my opinion Keys' songs also have appeal to white audiences but her lyrics are more focused on becoming a better person, experiencing life to its fullest, learning from mistakes, etc. Granted she also has her share of songs about love but they seem to come from a different place than Beyonce.

This also gives rise to the question of how much songwriting control Beyonce really has over her music, and whether that influences her promotion of racial stereotypes. Maybe Beyonce wants to belong to the ruling class and therefore is OK aligning herself with their (the ruling class, her producers, etc.) perception of black males.

@Derica,Girl, thank you for putting me on. I will put the book on my reading list.

@little_ph0enix Hey Girl, this is interesting.

This also gives rise to the question of how much songwriting control Beyonce really has over her music, and whether that influences her promotion of racial stereotypes. Maybe Beyonce wants to belong to the ruling class and therefore is OK aligning herself with their (the ruling class, her producers, etc.) perception of black males.=========Is the issue who is writing the songs or an artists willingness to sing, and therefore profit from them being sun?

An AK/ Yonce comparison may be cool.BUT, I am interested in how society requires anideology to maintain our current system which serves the interests of elite whites first.

So. Yeah.

The comparison is cool, but I trying to follow the money and the oppression. Luls.

Fascinating . I think as a thesis, its going to be incomplete if you don't consider the content of songs like Independent Women and what those say about black female empowerment in the same white power establishment you say controls/directs her lyrics. Also what are the positive images of black life (whether male or female) that her music contain?

If you're going to make the argument that her music sells because it caters to the establishment in a certain way, you're going to have to address the whole universe of similar musicians who have succeeded or failed in the same time period. Does Missy's music convey the same set of messages? Alicia Keys's man wears shiny cufflinks and she's no record sales slouch.

Personally I've always thought Beyonce's real stroke of genius as a pop artist is the conversational writing she's taken to the top. The biggest of her songs (from Destiny's Child to date) inevitably use language on a more everyday, conversational, slangy and 'black' (problematic?) basis than most pop acts do. Think "bug a boo", "am a, am a diva", etc.

I think you'll have to address very directly who writes her lyrics, the evolution of that writing over time and as her popularity has grown for this to be really strong. Definitely an idea worth exploring though. I'd love to see the results.